Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Liver and Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the bacon into thin slices and remove the rind.
Wash and dry the liver without soaking it, then cut it into slices about ⅓ inch thick.
Mix the flour with a little salt and pepper on a plate.
Dip each piece of liver into the flour, covering it well and shaking off any excess.
Slice the onion (if using).
Cook
In a frying pan, fry the bacon for about 4 minutes, turning it once.
Place the fried bacon on a hot dish.
Fry the liver in the same pan for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally until well cooked and not red when cut.
Arrange the liver in the middle of the dish to keep it hot.
Fry the onion with or after the liver.
Place the onion on top.
Make the sauce and serve
Add the remaining flour to the frying pan.
Stir until brown.
Add the stock and stir until it boils.
Pour this sauce over the liver.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Liver + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,420 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Liver + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Liver
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming firm and tender as it cooks through.
- Flour
- Coats the liver and, once browned in the pan, thickens the sauce.
- Bacon
- Adds fat and savoury flavour to the pan that the liver cooks in.
- Stock
- Liquid that dissolves the browned pan residue and forms the thin sauce.
The step that matters
Fry the liver until just cooked through. Liver turns tough and grainy when overcooked, but undercooked liver is unsafe, so it should be cooked through without going dry. Checking that it is no longer red when cut helps balance both risks.
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, flour, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against liver, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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